China's first astronaut reveals mysterious knocking on his capsule left him 'spooked' while in orbit

12/03/2016

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The noise of a 'hammer
hitting an iron bucket' left China's first ever astronaut in space feeling
nervous and concerned during his first ever journey into space. Astronaut Yang
Liwei made the disclosures in a fresh interview while talking about the bizarre
noises while aboard the Shenzhen 5 spaceship during a 21 hour mission back in
2003.

Several other astronauts
aboard the Shenzhou 6 and Shenzhou 7 have also stated that they heard a
similar, if not the same, banging. Yang Liwei was abroad the
Shenzhou 5 on October 16, 2003 and walked out of the re-entry unit during the
21-hour mission and into the last step – making him the 241st human in space. And
even though he should be rejoicing this honor, Liwei is still haunted by what
he overheard aboard the craft. He told Xinhua recalling the experience:

A non-causalsituation I
have met in space is a knock that appeared from time to time. It neither came
from outside nor inside the spaceship, but sounded like someone is knocking the
body of the spaceship just as knocking an iron bucket with a wooden hammer

That mysterious sound made
Liwei very tense, but he moved around the ship and nearer to the window to see
if he could find its cause. But he found nothing outside the craft that might
produce this mysterious sound.

After the successful arrival,
Yang Liwei tried to replicate the noises he heard with different instruments -
hoping the space agency's experts could crack the puzzle.

Though, no one has figured
out what might have produced such a noise and Liwei has not heard similar voice
ever since.

Astronauts aboard the Chinese
Shenzhou 6 and Shenzhou 7 have also described hearing a bizarre banging noise.

Liwie said:

Before entering space, I
have told them that the sound is a normal phenomenon, so there is no need to
worry